1. Field
The present disclosure is related to a user input device that includes a touch screen and, particularly, the filtering of detected touches to reduce input errors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern equipment frequently includes a touch screen positioned over the visual display as one user input device. The visual display can display various screens of input features, such as buttons and sliders, and the user can interact with the displayed input features by pressing the touch screen. Touch screens can be constructed using any of a variety of technologies, for example resistive, capacitive, optical, and acoustic wave technologies. Many touch screens have an associated touch screen controller that drives the touch screen and interprets the output of the touch screen to determine the location of the point on the touch screen being touched and provide a signal to another device, such as a processor.
Hospital equipment frequently incorporates touch screens as they are fast and easy to use and are easily cleaned, compared to a keyboard. Medical devices, such as the Pyxis MedStation™, use touch screens as one of the user input devices. In these devices, patient safety may be increased by configuring the systems to reduce the possibility of errors in data entry or incorrect selection of an input feature, such as selecting an incorrect button when the user rolls their fingertip and the detected position of the fingertip on the touchscreen moves from the intended button to an adjacent button.